ANTenna Blog -- How-To

Figures from Europe and around the world show that the bulk of IT managers have begun to grapple with server virtualization. Results, meanwhile, can be dramatic.

A recent report from IDC concerning the European market showed that 35 percent of servers purchased there in 2007 were being virtualized. And 52 percent of those bought in 2008 were going to be virtualized. Of those IT managers who were not using virtualization, 54 percent expected to do so in the next 18 months. The main stumbling blocks they reported were the lack of technical skill and problems with vendor licenses.

A report by the Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) of IT decision-makers worldwide found that 76 percent of them expected virtualization to significantly impact their IT management requirements during the next two years.

As for the US market, no recent reports on the penetration of virtualization have emerged, but there is enough interest to make virtualization the third-fastest-growing sector in the IT market. Only storage and security are growing faster, reports The 451 Group.

The advantages are illustrated in some case studies from Dell. These show cases where 335 servers were virtualized into 18; 46 servers for virtualized into eight; and 50 servers were virtualized into five. In other words, efficiency can sometimes be improved by a factor of 10 or more. Reportedly, virtualization even for small and medium-sized businesses is fairly straightforward.

Beyond reducing capital costs, virtualization should also be able to reduce downtime, reports IDC, since virtual servers can be backed up just like files, and often allow live migrations.

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